Many industries produce complex systems that are subject to stringent scrutiny and regulation over the course of the service life of that system. Such complex systems may include, for example, aircraft, rail systems, medical systems, weapon systems, and power generation systems where maintenance of such complex systems must be performed according to, for instance, state, federal and/or international regulations administered by one or more corresponding agencies. As a result, an owner of such a complex system generally must be extremely selective when obtaining replacement or spare parts for that system.
Such a situation is present with, for example, commercial aircraft sold by a manufacturer thereof to an airline which uses the aircraft as part of its fleet. These aircraft such as, for example, the Models 707, 717, 727, 737, 747, 757, 767, MD-11, MD-80, etc. produced by the Boeing Company are extremely complex and expensive systems that face stringent scrutiny from the Federal Aviation Administration (“FAA”) in areas related to, for instance, safety and maintenance. Of course, the scrutiny may vary between essential and non-essential parts. In any case, parts availability is a major concern for owners of such complex systems. In some instances, the owner must keep and maintain costly inventories of parts, especially “hard to find” parts. Alternatively, the owner must dedicate both manpower and monetary resources specifically for locating and procuring the appropriate parts from qualified vendors as the need arises. With this type of procurement process, the owner risks, for example, down time of the system if the required parts cannot be timely obtained. Such common procedures are often costly for the system owner, in terms of both expense and time.
In either instance, the parts purchasing process is difficult, costly, and time consuming. Typically, vendor salespeople call, write, and/or visit the owner's purchasing agent so as to describe and/or exhibit the product or part being sold. At the same time, the salesperson is often trying to favorably differentiate his/her product over competitors' products by describing an overall “value” of the product. However, when described in this manner, the “value” of the product is typically subjective, while providing little consistent information with which the buyer can make an objective purchasing decision. In addition, if the buyer has no experience with the particular vendor, the purchasing process may become even more costly where the chosen vendor fails to perform, since often little or no recourse is available to the owner/customer. The owner may also incur additional costs from system down time, efforts to find a replacement vendor, or the like. Further, such an unreliable vendor may also adversely affect many system owners unless others in the industry are notified of the that vendor's practices. However, there is often no mechanism for industry-wide notification that would effectively notify others in the industry.
More particular instances of difficulties in parts purchasing include, for example, instances where the specific part may lack critical information when listed for sale. For instance, a particular part may be used or refurbished and may lack a warranty or guarantee. Even if the buyer is able to compile information with regard to the particular part being procurable from several different vendors, the information may only reveal the price and general availability of the part. As a result, the buyer may not be able to effectively compare the actual relative values of the parts available from the various vendors. Thus, there exists a need for a system which would present a compilation of parts comprising the complex system and the corresponding vendors, wherein this information would be accessible to buyers and/or owners of the appropriate complex system. Such a system should allow the buyer to post a query about a particular part and be presented with a reply including the vendors from which the queried part is available. The system should further allow the buyer to make an objective purchasing decision based upon the actual attributes of the particular part available from each identified vendor. There also exists a need for a system which would apply a predetermined standardized criteria to each part available to the buyer so as to allow the buyer to make an expedited and objective purchasing decision with regard to the particular part and the corresponding value desired by the buyer. Such a system should also comprise a mechanism for rating the vendors providing the particular part including, for example, vendor reliability and the like.
However, the vendor side of such an industry may also face similar limitations in providing parts to a customer that meet the customer's stated needs. For example, vendors may retain, at considerable expense, salespeople to call, write, visit, or otherwise contact the potential customers. These salespeople must effectively describe the value of the vendor's products over those of a competing vendor in order to obtain the customer's business. The efforts of the vendor may also be hindered by intermediaries, brokers, competitors, or the like disseminating inaccurate information to the potential customer about their product or the vendor's product. Thus, there exists a further need for a system that provides accurate and acceptable vendor information to buyers, wherein the endorsement of such a system by buyers would persuade vendors to participate. Accordingly, such a system would require all participating vendors to abide by particular business practice guidelines which would be effectively monitored to assure compliance.